The Conference Board came out with this press release this morning:

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI)â„¢ fell further in January. The index now stands at 96.6, down 1.0 percent from the December revised figure of 97.5, and down 18.6 percent from a year ago.

“The Employment Trends Indexâ„¢ has recently been declining faster than at any time since the 1974 recession,” said Gad Levanon, Senior Economist at The Conference Board. “Such declines suggest considerable job losses will persist for several more months. It is becoming clearer that the continued worsening economic conditions are forcing many companies to make further downward adjustments to their workforce.”

The unemployment rate will clearly breach 8%. Question is, will it go higher than 10%. Sad to say, that appears to be the right forecast.